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Pig's spine and Neck


Soup

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I was at a korean resturant couple of weeks back and order Gamja Tang. The words translate into potato soup. However, the main item is the dinosour sized neck and spine pieces of the pig.

As I started to eat, I wonder, should I worry about eating spinal cord of the pig like I would with a cow? Are there mad cow equivalent issues?

Soup

PS I ended up not eating the "meat" (I was chicken) but the soup was amazing.

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nope, no health issues. Even trichinosis (the main worry with pork) is almost non-existent these days, and is killed by cooking (or freezing) and since it was soup, it probably cooked forever. Your only concern is probably the way it looked - some people find stuff like that gross. Like the eyeball tacos at Maxwell street market in Chicago. One of the few foods I won't touch.

"A culture's appetite always springs from its poor" - John Thorne

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I am not an expert on this, but I have done a bit of reading on these prion diseases. True, no cases of spongiform encephalopathy have yet been seen in pigs (except induced under lab conditions - see http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/report/volume11/chapter8.htm). But it is my understanding that, unlike ruminants, pigs continue to be fed meat and bone meal (MBM) -- which many believe is responsible for the spread of BSE. To be sure, pigs are slaughtered young enough that the disease doesn't develop. Anyway, I guess the prudent answer to the question of whether there's a porcine equivalent of BSE is "not yet". As with any meat, you're better off eating pork from pigs that have been raised by farmers who care enough about their animals and their customers not to feed them (the pigs, not the customers) MBM - ideally, foraging ("pasturing" as they call it in brochures) probably supplemented by veg-based feeds. I'm not an expert on this either; perhaps others will chime in here.

Oh - and, assuming the prion theory for the cause of these diseases is correct, note that prions are not destroyed by cooking. A recent book (D.T. Max's "The Family that Couldn't Sleep") tells us that even when infected tissue is incinerated, viable prions remain in the ashes. They're tough.

Edited by emsny (log)
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As with any meat, you're better off eating pork from pigs that have been raised by farmers who care enough about their animals and their customers not to feed them (the pigs, not the customers) MBM - ideally, foraging ("pasturing" as they call it in brochures) probably supplemented by veg-based feeds. I'm not an expert on this either; perhaps others will chime in here.

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Our romantic notion of pigs as foragers, and chickens pecking away at insects and weed seeds, are of a bygone era, and not likely to return, even as we demand natural or organic foods. Sheep and cattle can be pastured, and goats with care, but even a few pigs will destroy a few acres quickly with their snouts. Chickens have to be kept away from wild birds, as even one sick bird outdoors can result in the entire flock being destroyed.

Almost all pigs and chickens are raised indoors, in North America, to keep the animals safe, and promote healthy growth. Some barns or pens may allow access to a small barnyard, a few hours a day, in mild weather; this may be done to meet organic requirements, or to bolster a 'healthy living' claim.

But not all barns and pens are huge factory operations, and it is now quite practical for us, as consumers, to look for grain fed, naturally raised animals.

In my area, it is not difficult to find grain fed chicken and eggs, grain raised pork, and beef raised on grass, ensilage, and finished on grain. Many small farm operations (1000 acres or less) are self sustaining, and able to grow enough grain, hay, and silage for all their animals and birds. But if the pigs were let out a lot of pasture would be destroyed.

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One of the curiosities of modern life is that we in the NY megalopolis do indeed have ready access - at a price - to pork from pigs that have been allowed to wander around fields and woods. But jayt90's right that that's not the only way to get better, safer meat onto the table in a more sustainable way.

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